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Monday, April 2, 2012

WrestleMania 28: Some Quick Impressions

With so
much to digest, analyze, and comment on coming out of WrestleMania 28 last
night, a full recap will be forthcoming soon. For the time being, though, I
just wanted to see if you noticed the same things I noticed on the pay-per-view
broadcast. Aside from three epic main-event matches, here’s what jumped out at
me:

Maria
Menounos, Flo Rida, P-Diddy, Machine Gun Kelly, Brodus and Mama Clay (with The
Bridge Club) were all given way more airtime than Daniel Bryan and Sheamus were
given for a World title match.

Just when
it looked like Justin Gabriel could make something of himself as a singles
wrestler, he’s saddled with Heath Slater again

Kane
twice thwarted Randy Orton’s RKO attempts.

The WWE
broadcast team made at least five “vintage” wrestler references.

Brie
Bella called the Divas “classy.” Apparently, Natalya wasn’t within smelling
distance when Brie said that.

The much
leaner Mike Tyson is hopelessly infatuated with the DeGeneration-X crotch chop.

The censors
cut out the words “Suck it” when Triple-H crotch chopped Undertaker. For $60,
everything should get through.

John Cena’s
body language in the first few minutes of his match with The Rock subtly but
demonstratively teased a heel turn, which after long last, might actually occur
on Raw
tonight.

For a
show that’s traditionally been all about wrapping up storylines, there was a
curious lack of resolution this year—e.g. what becomes of The Rock, Cena, and
Chris Jericho now?

2 comments:

I'll tell you what I think. I think the show had the potential to be great and they squandered it. Completely and utterly. The John Laurinitis storyline was played out months ago and we should have finally had a situation where the faces had a chance to shine in a position of authority. Instead we have yet another crappy heel GM and this one's running both shows.

The Rock-Cena match was another major letdown. I won't go out on a limb to say I'm Cena's biggest fan, but I am someone who is a fan of Cena. And I honestly believe Rock going over last night was a mistake. So Rock goes over at Wrestlemania......

And?

No, seriously, what the hell does this add to the WWE? Sure Rock came out of Hollywood like some mythical beast people pass off as a joke, but what does this do besides utterly destroy the credibility of the supposed face of the company? This should have been a match where Cena was passed the torch by Rock. Andre did it for Hogan. Hogan had to do it twice first with Warrior and again with Rock when Warrior fizzled out, seeing the return of the torch to Hogan since he was the only name that could still carry it in the WWE. And of course as we know, two years after Hogan passed the torch to Rock...he vanished into Hollywood, only occasionally poking his head into the WWE like some demented groundhog who flees the moment he sees his shadow. Cena stepped up and for the last eight years while Rock has been off making movies, Cena has been busting his ass to entertain people, whether he's being booed or cheered. And then Rock comes back....and they give him the win. So he's going to vanish back into Hollywood and nobody will care because it somehow 'helps' the WWE. God almighty, what a waste. I'm officially sick of Rock. Bad enough he refused to lose his rematch with Hogan, but now this? I'll say it here first for the first time in over ten years:

Rocky. SUCKS.

And here's a message to The Rock that I know he'll never see:Go back to Hollywood and stay there, Rock. I intend to ignore your movies, so stay off the WWE shows. I want to enjoy what I can of them now that Laurinitis is playing heel GM over both shows. I don't want to have to shut off the TV every time you come on the screen, but I will.

So I watched this show and felt besides Randy Orton vs Kane, that I should have been able to just watch the last three matches in succession without any of the other clutter. Flo Rida adding in some "Rock Bottoms" in his song was cute, but otherwise, why was there a Tron Lightcycle? Why didn't the Rock ride that down to the ring...

I digress.

Here's the interesting part... a lot of the people I expected to win, ie Jericho and Bryan, did not, and did not cleanly. We saw Jericho's fallout on Raw, very reminiscent of Raven in ROH so many moons ago, and Daniel Bryan obviously will devistate AJ with his words on Smackdown, but I have an interesting take on the Rock/Cena match...

It ended the way it needed to. Cena making a grave mistake against a celebrity and we all know that Celebrity records are actually better than the Undertaker at Wrestlemania. The Rock got the win because he was the celebrity, not because he was the better WWE wrestler.

Both Cena and the Rock on Monday night talked about giving respect to the other guy, but I didn't think this should have been the case, as Rcoky SHOULD do the Job to Cena as Summerslam or Survivor Series before beefing up for another match, and then a title shot at Mania next year.

Cena dominated their match, and it wasn't their wrestling that made it great, it was the crowd, and Miami proved during that match they DESERVED Mania...

Due to all the BS, the show deserved a 6.5 out of ten, but that crowd during the finale was an 11.